Al-Qaeda seized control of Iraq's third biggest city on Tuesday, freeing thousands of comrades in a series of jailbreaks and sparking a mass exodus of refugees.
The assault on the city of Mosul, 225 miles north west of Baghdad, saw the Iraqi army retreat to the outskirts after a sustained assault by men armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
As well as seizing the main governorate building - forcing the city's governor to flee - the gunmen were also reported to have gained control of three different jails, numerous police stations and an airport, where several military planes and helicopters were based.
The loss of the city, home to around one million people, is potentially a huge challenge to the Iraqi government, which has been struggling to quell a regalvanised al-Qaeda insurgency for more than two years.
Terrified residents of Mosul spoke of seeing militants raising al-Qaeda's black flag from buildings, and of newly-released prisoners running through the streets in yellow jumpsuits. » | Colin Freeman, agencies | Tuesday, June 10, 2014
